One truck safety organization is conducting several events this summer that highlight and attempt to prevent common causes of catastrophic trucking accidents.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is a coalition of roadway safety groups and law enforcement throughout North America. It focuses on making trucking safer in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Defective Commercial Truck Brakes
It will hold its annual Brake Safety Week this year on August 21 – 27. Inspectors will conduct roadside inspections of commercial trucks, checking for serious maintenance issues. The emphasis of the event will be on brake systems, as defective truck brakes are a known cause of commercial truck crashes.
During last year’s Brake Safety Week, CVSA inspectors found about 14% of the U.S. commercial trucks they inspected had brake issues so serious they were placed out of service until the repairs were made.
CVSA has conducted or announced other events already this year designed to address common causes of serious commercial tractor-trailer accidents.
Negligent Truck Driver Behavior
In May the CVSA conducted its annual International Roadcheck, which is a three-day effort to inspect commercial trucks and commercial truck drivers for safety violations.
Commercial truck drivers also were subject to inspection. Potential truck driver violations inspectors checked for included:
- Invalid commercial truck driver’s license
- Hours of service violations
- Drug or alcohol impairment
The latter two are especially dangerous to other drivers. Hours of Service rules mandate how long a truck driver can be on the road each day and during the week. They are designed to prevent dangerously tired commercial truck drivers from taking the wheel. Truck drivers who are inattentive, lack focus or fall asleep while driving, are an obvious threat, especially during heavy traffic.
CVSA has not released the findings yet of 2022 International Roadcheck.
These events are designed to find dangerous truck drivers and defective commercial trucks, and take them off the road. But they of course won’t prevent all fatal accidents caused by negligent truck driver actions or improperly maintained commercial trucks.
If you were seriously hurt or lost a loved one in a crash with a commercial tractor-trailer, there is legal recourse you may want to consider. Speak to a personal injury lawyer about your legal options for pursuing just compensation from all responsible parties.
The choice of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
Authored by Gray Ritter Graham. Posted in Blog June 30, 2022.
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